Disney’s Animal Kingdom: The Wild That Never Was

Disney’s Animal Kingdom: The Wild That Never Was

Stephanie Rutherford

Publisher:

University of Minnesota Press

DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816674404.003.0002

This chapter considers how Disney packages and sells nature as part of its collection of goods at the Disney Animal Kingdom Theme Park. It addresses Disney's influence as a cultural producer and its longstanding project of reimagining nature, which culminated most recently in the construction of the Animal Kingdom. It explores Disney's efforts to remake itself as an agent of conservation through its “Environmentality” program and projects like the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund. It concludes with a discussion of Disney's role as a biopolitical institution that enframes nature, and draws out lessons about how one of the most influential corporations in the world acts as an agent in the construction of a particular brand of green governmentality.

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